BEST HOTEL OPENINGS OF THE YEAR!
You trust us to know, right?
2024 was a remarkable year for new hotels. Here are the seven most remarkable to our jaundiced eye…
SONEVA SECRET MALDIVES
In April on the very remote atoll of Haa Dhaalu in the Maldives, Soneva Secret opened.
With 14 over-water and beach villas, which include some exclusive lagoon Crusoe Villas you have to take a boat to get to. All villas have a sliding roof for stargazing and a dedicated just to you staff of three: a Barefoot Guardian, a Barefoot Assistant, and a chef, to cater to the guests’ comfort. They do not say if the chef is barefoot, and one hopes, frankly, that he’s not.
The emphasis is on privacy, seclusion and service, to be surrounded by and appreciate the beauty of nature. All, apparently, or at least heavily suggested, barefoot.
soneva.com/resorts/soneva-secret-2024/
ONE&ONLY KEA ISLAND GREECE
In May One&Only opened its second luxury resort in Greece. And it is luxury, located on one of the most sought after beaches on Kéa Island, the closest Cycladic island to Athens, just 45 minutes away by speedboat! With 75 villas all with private pools and sea views you can only imagine. Right? I mean, do we have to write it out for you?
100 meters (about 328 feet, more than a football field) of sandy beach, beautiful clear Aegean water, great food and holistic wellness! Oh and a few exclusive private homes, which you can buy. Maybe just buy one first? All spread across sixty hectares.
oneandonlyresorts.com/kea-island
HOTEL BALZAC PARIS, FRANCE
In June Hôtel Balzac opened on Rue Lord Byron in the 8th Arrondissement of Paris. The Balzac’s designers, Festen Architecture, took inspiration from the elegance of 1930’s and 1940’s Paris, epitomized in the classic French tradition. The property sits on the site of the last house of the writer Honoré de Balzac. When Balzac was there the street was Avenue Fortunée. It would probably piss him off no end that the street now memorializes a different author, and an English one no less!
There are 58 guestrooms and suites, and some have balconies with views of the Eiffel Tower. A mysterious bar and a Japanese traditional spa give guests a pretty close approximation to a 19th century Parisian experience.
MANDARIN ORIENTAL MAYFAIR LONDON, UK
In June the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair opened its doors, located on Hanover Square in Mayfair, where fashion, art, media, history, culture and business intersect and all are in walking distance. With fifty guestrooms and suites and eighty private residences with access to all hotel facilities, including wining and dining, indoor pool and fitness and wellness center. It’s an extraordinary property in the heart of one of the world’s great cities.
mandarinoriental.com/en/london/mayfair
HIIVE BY FUSION BINH DUONG NEW CITY BINH DUONG, VIETNAM
HIIVE by Fusion Binh Duong New City opened in June, in the fast-growing industrial hub just north of Ho Chi Minh City and 38km (24 miles) from Tan Son Nhat International Airport. With 175-guest rooms, the hotel is designed with the business traveler in mind, but with all the comforts of home (and presumably, they were thinking, none of the hassle). The rooms, public spaces and dining areas have, quixotically, and somewhat exotically given this is Vietnam, a Scandinavian feel. It’s a good thing.
THE STEWARD SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA
Back on home soil, in July Tribute Portfolio Hotels opened The Steward in Santa Barbara. Located on the grounds of Sexton House, known for its horticultural setting, it has 87 suites situated on 4.7 acres of beautiful gardens, including California’s oldest bird-of-paradise plants and heritage trees. The Steward offers guests a sustainable hideaway — but close to Santa Barbara Airport if you have to get away — and near beaches and, gloriously, vineyards.
BANYAN TREE HIGASHIYAMA KYOTO, JAPAN
Located in the historic Higashiyama Ward of Kyoto city, the Banyan Tree Higashiyama opened on August 1st. This is the first hotel for the Banyan Tree brand in Japan, which seems strange, now we think about it.
With 52 guest rooms, a Higashiyama Onsen hot spring and the only hotel in Kyoto with a Noh stage, a venue for contemporary art performances, musical events and Nohgaku, an ancient form of Japanese theater, where actors illustrate more than perform, through dance and costume and very subtle, sometimes very slow movement, classic Japanese literature and folktales featuring the supernatural such as ghosts and gods. Noh theater has been performed continuously for around 650 years, one of the oldest theatrical expressions in the world. Worth going for that, frankly. And it’s also a frigging gorgeous hotel and the food is divine.
